My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
On my final cruise of my first contract, we changed ports to avoid a hurricane. The port I was most excited about was Puerto Rico, but I was IPM (had to stay on the ship and do activities) and NO ONE WOULD TRADE WITH ME! Stef got off in Puerto Rico and reported back– I would have loved it. there was an old town, a street with umbrellas and a tree with a gazillion pigeons. I got off in the Dominican Republic and played with monkeys. Stef would have loved that. She loves playing with animals. She said, it should have been the other way around! I knew that!
When I saw the itinerary, we would go to Puerto Rico three times! And of course, as it fell, I was IPM the first time and the last time. I would have one chance to see this island. I wanted to hang out in the old town, see the umbrella street and the pigeon tree and run into Lin Manuel Miranda, who was playing Hamilton in Hamilton, here in Puerto Rico, where his parents were from.
We waited for the production guys to finish their sound check, gathered by the forward gangway and then we set off. I kind of floated off, I was so excited. We walked through the terminal and came out on the busy street. I shared my intentions for Puerto Rico, and Melhia told me that Lin had actually just left. We just missed him! I was able to post the disappointing news on Facebook because we were in a US territory and my phone worked!
Melhia bought some jewelry from a street vendor and then we made a turn and walked uphill into the old town.
I was in heaven– narrow streets, colorful buildings, bricks on the ground.
I was in Europe in the Caribbean again!
We found this funky little bar and got a round of drinks.
Sidney (a Specialty Bartender from Los Angeles) was all over TripAdvisor looking for the best places to eat and drink. We wanted some local food.
We found it! We found a place that had more locals than tourists as far as I could tell. We ordered a side of all the specialties and shared. I can’t remember what these things were, but cheeseballs are involved. It was delicious.
We found some grass and rolled around in it. There isn’t much grass on the ship. (I do mean real grass not what you’re thinking. Although as far as I know, the same is true for that too. They do do random drug testing on the ship and no one wants to risk their job that much.)
I just loved walking through the streets.
Here’s my picture!
I loved that all the street signs were in a different language.
And I love a sidewalk cafe.
We wandered through the streets and found the umbrella street! Without even trying! Well, it could have been that Sidney was guiding us there. It was underwhelming so I didn’t take a cheese iconic photo. But around the corner was the pigeon tree!
Melhia fed them and was subsequently attacked. I’ll post a video on Facebook.
A pigeon landed on Sidney’s head, so he had to take a selfie.
We got another round of cheap beers from the corner store and then sat out on the roof and enjoyed the view.
I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Great friends, great atmosphere, old town, grass, pigeons, local food. I was happy.